Observation/Reflection #2: Eyes in the Back of Your Head: Observing Student Actions From a seat in the rear of the room, observe your students and take notes on what they are doing while the teacher is presenting in the front of the room, while they are supposed to be doing seatwork, and/or when they are working in the lab. Look closely at each student for a range of behaviors, and resist the temptation on only see what you expect. Note especially what is happening furthest from the teacher. What strategies are used by your teacher to encourage students to attend and engage?
How important is student engagement to your view of how you will teach? What strategies will you employ to encourage student engagement? Observation In my observation of Mr. Reyes classroom that student attention was not issue during group work or labs however seat work and front of the class lecturing seemed to create some issues in a couple of his classes.I noted several sources of distraction for students most reoccurring was the loud electric pencil sharpener in the back of the classroom. During Mr.
Reyes lecture, several students got up to sharpen their pencils to a point where there where more students waiting to use the sharpener then taking notes.The sharpener is so loud that Mr. Reyes stopped his lesson to wait for students to finish sharpening so they would not miss the important points of the lecture.During seatwork I found some students would do nothing but talk to friends and not because they where not capable of doing the work.They would start doing the assignment only when proximity to Mr. Reyes or myself increased.Mr. Reyes tends to find ways to use distractions in class as part of his lessons.Notably a random outburst in class about girls being smarter then boys was then used as a class competition of the day’s materials.While it was only a small change to Mr. Reyes’s plan for the day it was timely to the students and a very effective students engagement strategy. Reflection While Mr. Reyes has an effective start up plan to class which was addressed in my last reflection I find that it may be lacking in allowing students a minute or two for sharpening pencils and other such preparation.There was at least five minutes of class time burnt up by the pencil sharpener.If Mr. Reyes had made have a sharpened pencil ready at the beginning of class this could have been avoided.For students who do not do seatwork unless you are near them there really is no better fix then proximity so a seat in the middle of the classroom would likely best fix that problem.I say center because during seatwork the teacher should be walking around helping the students and a centralized seat would maximize proximity from other student’s desks.Mr. Reyes use of the student’s distraction to fuel engagement in his class is something I will try to mirror in my own teaching and a very effective tool.The drawback to this technique is that it could derail an inexperienced teacher’s lesson.
From a seat in the rear of the room, observe your students and take notes on what they are doing while the teacher is presenting in the front of the room, while they are supposed to be doing seatwork, and/or when they are working in the lab. Look closely at each student for a range of behaviors, and resist the temptation on only see what you expect. Note especially what is happening furthest from the teacher. What strategies are used by your teacher to encourage students to attend and engage?
How important is student engagement to your view of how you will teach? What strategies will you employ to encourage student engagement?
Observation
In my observation of Mr. Reyes classroom that student attention was not issue during group work or labs however seat work and front of the class lecturing seemed to create some issues in a couple of his classes. I noted several sources of distraction for students most reoccurring was the loud electric pencil sharpener in the back of the classroom. During Mr.
Reyes lecture, several students got up to sharpen their pencils to a point where there where more students waiting to use the sharpener then taking notes. The sharpener is so loud that Mr. Reyes stopped his lesson to wait for students to finish sharpening so they would not miss the important points of the lecture. During seatwork I found some students would do nothing but talk to friends and not because they where not capable of doing the work. They would start doing the assignment only when proximity to Mr. Reyes or myself increased. Mr. Reyes tends to find ways to use distractions in class as part of his lessons. Notably a random outburst in class about girls being smarter then boys was then used as a class competition of the day’s materials. While it was only a small change to Mr. Reyes’s plan for the day it was timely to the students and a very effective students engagement strategy.
Reflection
While Mr. Reyes has an effective start up plan to class which was addressed in my last reflection I find that it may be lacking in allowing students a minute or two for sharpening pencils and other such preparation. There was at least five minutes of class time burnt up by the pencil sharpener. If Mr. Reyes had made have a sharpened pencil ready at the beginning of class this could have been avoided. For students who do not do seatwork unless you are near them there really is no better fix then proximity so a seat in the middle of the classroom would likely best fix that problem. I say center because during seatwork the teacher should be walking around helping the students and a centralized seat would maximize proximity from other student’s desks. Mr. Reyes use of the student’s distraction to fuel engagement in his class is something I will try to mirror in my own teaching and a very effective tool. The drawback to this technique is that it could derail an inexperienced teacher’s lesson.